Apure State, Venezuela Trip Report
November, 2010
The following is the report of my trip to the community called Africa in the State of Apure, Venezuela.
We first coordinated this trip with the help of Brother Luis Blanco who lives in Barinas State relatively close to our destination.
The State of Apure is located in the southwestern edge of Venezuela. According historians, the name “Apure” comes from an Indian word meaning, “The land farther than nevermore.”
A great portion of the Apure State is sand dunes (about 30,000 square kilometers). However, it is not a desert climate but more of a savannah, with wild pastures alternating the landscape with some jungle spots, rivers and sand dunes of more than 100 kilometers long and 20 meters high in the middle of the rivers! Some of these dunes are used by the locals to build their dairy farms on. As strange as it may sound, these dunes in the rivers serve as a shelter for the stock during the rainy season where floods abound.
The ground is mainly plain with broad extensions of savannah where rivers Apure, Arauca, and Capanaparo meet the Orinoco River and the start of the Andes ridge. The area is flooded during its rainy season and the edge of the State is guarded by mountains of more than three kilometers high.
The Trip
We proposed in our hearts to visit this area, meet the believers, and bring a part of the office to them so they can also see and hear about our work at Voice of God Recordings. We loaded our truck with material and we got on the road.
Our trip started on Thursday, November 11 in the afternoon with destination to the city of Barinas where Brother Blanco was waiting for us. We attended the service in the local church that evening.
The brothers and sisters listened in attention as they were informed and stimulated to listen to the sermons preached by our precious Brother Branham. I shared some testimonies about what the Lord has been doing in different places. I emphasized the importance of listening to the Voice of God in our days.
Friday was the day we had coordinated to meet Brother Enrique Sanchez, the pastor of the Africa group. We traveled for about three hours in a strange weather with much wind and rain. We had to drive more carefully and definitely slower. We left the main road and started going through a dirt and mud road that seemed to last forever.
We finally arrived to a farm where we waited for the brother that would take us on a boat to the Africa community. There was no other way to reach this place but through the river. We waited for three hours since Brother Enrique had some problems with the boat’s engine and had to repair it.
We loaded the boat with all the material we had in the truck and started our trip. We asked the farm owners if we could leave our truck with them. They gladly accepted and said this was a blessing for them. They were Pentecostals and relatives of some believers in Africa.
The trip by boat was about two hours and the waters were wild and full of piranhas. We had to stop a few times due to the strong rain. We were so happy to know that we were going in the service of the Lord. We stopped in a place to rest for a while and a sister that lived close by to the shore brought us hot coffee.
We were marveled by the beautiful scenery. The greatness of God’s power was visible in His creation. This was “the heart of the jungle” where you breathe pure and fresh air.
When we arrived to Africa, some of the believers helped us to unload the material from the boat and received us as old friends. This was our first trip to this area in the country, but they really made us feel as local people among them. The fellowship was tremendous.
We started with all the activities that we had coordinated and the generator was truly a great blessing. We played the film Deep Calleth To The Deep as this was something that everybody wanted to see. They had heard that this film existed but never watched it before. All the believers watched the service with much concentration and even some unbelievers came to see it as well.
Everybody was amazed with these things, as they had never seen a computer or a projector before. These are very poor people and have no electricity. I had the privilege of giving them a voltage inverter, solar panel, and disc player so they can hear the Message. They also received the books in the form of three large boxes containing sets of 11 different sermons and bound books like, The Seven Seals, Seven Church Ages, C.O.D., A Man Sent From God, Brother Branham, Bibles and The Mother Opossum among other items.
We noticed how they started reading immediately, and they even packed them to the services with their Bibles to read before the meetings started. On Saturday afternoon, after watching the Catch The Vision video and A Prophet’s Hometown, we listened to a portion of the sermon The Mighty God Unveiled Before Us. This was received by the open hearts of the believers and what a great blessing they had! Many expressed afterwards that this was the first time they heard the Voice of the prophet.
It is so wonderful to know that in these far away places the Message is reaching the Bride of Christ. No doubt there is Seed of God being blessed by the ministry that is unfolding in this time of so much confusion and darkness. This light is spreading and penetrating the farthest places one can imagine.
After all the activities, I talked to the brothers and I could see there is a great interest in knowing more about the Message. They had questions that we tried to answer in the best way possible. The most important thing is that they have the books and tapes that will help them answer the doctrinal questions they may have. From now on, they will grow in the knowledge of the Word of God. Their lives will truly be edified by this.
A real treasure has been put in their hands and they know it. They enjoy now the greatest blessing that the believers in any age ever had in their hands.
God bless you!
Brother Ebrain Tona